Portable agitator



Jan. 3, 1967 F. A. LANGELLA PORTABLE AGITATOR 2 Sheets-Sh et 1 Filed Oct. 16, 1964 1N VENTOR. [Era 2211 A. Laage/a Jan. 3, 1967 F. A. LANGELLA PORTABLE AGITATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 16, 1964 INVENTOR.

Hank A. Lazzgeffa BY United States Patent O 3,295,836 PORTABLE AGITATOR 7 Frank A. Langella, Raymond Blvd. and Rte. US. 1, Newark, NJ. 07103 Filed Oct. 16, 1964, Ser. No. 404,297 7 Claims. (Cl. 259-122) This invention relates to an agitator, and more particularly to a portable agitator. Terms as agitator, agi tating, as used in the present specification and claims, are to be understood to cover mixing, dispersing, homogenizing, dissolving and similar actions.

One object of this invention is to provide an agitator primarily intended for use in connection with containers, such as shipping containers, by removably introducing the agitator through a container opening. The invention aims at an agitator which can easily be installed in such containers and easily removed therefrom.

Another object of the invention is to provide an agitator which can be used for gentle circulation and rapid stirring and, thus, is applicable to a wide variety of specialized needs. The present agitator is intended and designed for different liquid agitating jobs, for instance, for thin, medium thin, viscous, and pastelike consistencies.

In the United States, there are approximately 15,000,- 000 steel drums manufactured each year. They are used for storage and shipment purposes by manufacturers of chemicals, petroleum products, paints, coatings, varnishes, food products, and other products. Drums, say, from to 58 gallons, as used for the shipment of paints, varnishes, and other products of high viscosity and a tendency to thicken or to separate, are equipped with agitators of a permanent type since the products involved require mixing and agitating prior to partly or completely emptying the drums. Such permanent agitators are fixedly attached to the flat top and bottom heads of the respective drum. It will readily be appreciated that an agitator which is to be delivered with each individual drum increases initial costs. In addition, permanently mounted agitators have other grave disadvantges. Approximately 50,000,000 used drums are reconditioned in this country each year. Todays reconditioning, as far as the results thereof are concerned, leaves much to be desired since the brackets supporting the agitator, as well as the shaft and stirring blades of the agitator, interfere with the cleaning operations. It is extremely difiicult to obtain a high degree of cleanness underneath and around the brackets and of the shaft and blades. Another of the many disadvantages is that parts of the permanent agitator are subject to breakage and disjunction, which renders a drum so affected unusable for the purposes for which it was intended;

An important object of my invention is to provide an agitator-for shipping drums, which is free of the aforesaid disadvantages and offers, instead, the advantages of reduced initial costs, easy handling during reconditioning, and safely attaining the commercially desired cleanness, and at the same times does away with the risks of breakage and disjunction incurred with the known permanent agitators.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an agitator which can be held in proper position within the drum during operation and is axially adjustable within the drum.

A further and most important object of the invention is to provide an agitator which combines utmost simplicity with great efiiciency. My agitator will agitate, for instance, a sediment in a drum expeditiously and increase the speed and thoroughness with which the sediment will be uniformly dispersed throughout the body of the drum contents.

Other objects of the present invention center about an "ice agitator which is sturdy in construction and inexpensive to manufacture.

To the accomplishment of the aforesaid objects and such other objects as will be apparent from the following portion of the specification, the present invention consists in the elements of a portable agitator and in the relation of these elements one to the other, as will be more particularly described hereinafter and sought to be defined in the claims.

Broadly, my invention provides a portable agitator which, as has already been stated, can easily be introduced in a container opening. The agitator comprises a shaft, means for supporting the shaft within the container opening for rotation about the axis of the shaft, and stirring means. The agitator relies for its support only on means within the container opening. The stirring means are constituted by a bar of elongated channellike shape. One of the most important features of-the present invention is to be seen in the fact that the bar is secured to the shaft in end to end relation so that the channel formed by the bar, whenever the shaft and bar assembly rotates, opens in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of rotation.

The specification is accompanied by drawings which show by way of example a number of embodiments of the invention and in which: FIG. 1 is a partially sectioned elevation of a shipping drum and a side elevation of an agitator embodying features of the invention, the agitator being shown within a drum;

FIG. 2 is a section taken in the plane of the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is explanatory of the introduction'of the agitator of FIG. 1 into the drum; FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectioned elevation of a drum and a modified agitator including an agitator handle, drawn to enlarged scale and illustrating the attachment of the agitator to the drum;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to that of FIG. 4, showing, however, a part which differs from the handle shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a view similar to those of FIGS. 4 and 5, showing the referred to handle of FIG. 4 in a different position; and Y FIG. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view of a drum and a a fragmentary partially sectioned elevation of another The drum has a cylindrical side wall 11, a flat top head 12,

and a fiat bottom head 13. There are a bunghole in the side wall near the drum bottom, and two bungholes in the drum top, one in the center, and one near the periphery, of the top. The bungholes are stopped by conventional bungs. The drum in its entirely is of conventional design and forms no part of this invention.

The agitator of the invention, shown within the drum 10 and generally designated 14, consists of a shaft '15, a hand crank 16, a stirrer bar generally designated 17, a sleeve 18, and an externally threaded closure cap 19. The shaft 15 is formed from a round bar and terminates at one end in the crank 16 and is secured at the other end, as at 20, to the stirrer bar 17. The sleeve 18 is fixedly connected with the closure cap 19, and both the sleeve and the closure cap are slidable along the shaft and thus slidably receive the shaft. An internally threaded annular flange 21 around the central bunghole in the top, designated 22, is adapted to threadedly receive the closure cap 19 and to support the agitator for operation within the drum. The sleeve 18 helps hold the agitator in central alignment. The agitator is a self-contained de- 3 vice and needs no fastenings for its being fastened to the drum, except for the complementary fastenings integrally provided on the drum and the agitator, respectively.

The stirrer bar 17 is throughout its length of V-shape in cross-section (see FIG. 2) but may have other crosssectional shapes as well, for instance, angle and T crosssection. It is self-bracing and sufiiciently rigid to withstand bending strains, and is shaped to form essentially three sections 23, 24, 25. A continuation 23a of the section 23, as a portion of the bar 17, and the shaft are secured to each other. The continuation 23a serves primarily as an end portion of section 23 to be in alignment with the shaft and to facilitate the connection between shaft and stirrer bar. The shaft 15 and all of the sections 23, 24, and are so disposed with respect to each other that they lie substantially in a common plane. The section 23 also referred to as first section extends away from the shaft 15 and forms together with the shaft an obtuse angle. At the end remote from the axis of the shaft 15, the section 23 merges into the section 24 which is referred to as second section and extends parallel to, and spaced from, the axis of the shaft. The section 24 continues as section 25 or as third section which extends perpendicularly to the axis of the shaft and is shown to project beyond :a point where the axis of the shaft intersects the section 25.

FIG. 3 shows how the agitator 14 is introduced into the drum 10 through the bunghole 22. It is the section 25 which is to be passed through the opening first, with the free end of the section 25 pointing ahead and being inserted first. The agitator is held in a position in which the section 25 is appropriately inclined and which will allow the whole length of the section to be moved through the opening. Upon full insertion of the section 25, the stirrer bar 17 assumes the solid line position shown. Then, with a fulcrum in the bunghole 22, the agitator is turned into a position in which the shaft 15, which is not shown in FIG. 3, and the continuation 23a which is shown, extend perpendicularly to the top head 12, and from which position tthe agitator can be moved toward the drum. The agitator assumes the dotted line position in which the section 24 is fully introduced. Next, the agitator is again turned to permit the section 25 to be inserted so that, upon full introduction of the section 25, the dash-dotted line position is arrived at. Finally, another turn will allow the shaft (not shown) to be slid through the opening, and the whole agitator to be lowered toward or to the bottom of the drum.

From FIG. 3, it will also be seen that none of the'sections could be fully inserted unless the various angles formed by the shaft and the section 23 of the stirrer bar and by the sections themselves are susceptible of the insertion. The insertion depends also on the dimensions of the stirrer bar sections. Otherwise, there would be interference with the drum top head on the outside and the top head and the cylindrical drum wall on the inside. The transitions from one section to the adjacent sections are rounded to facilitate insertion of the agitator.

Being primarily intended for use with containers which, except for at least a single opening, may be referred to as closed containers, my agitator is equipped with means for releasably securing same to the container within which the agitator is to be used. I prefer to provide securing means on the agitator, which will complement securing means generally existing on containers with which the agitator will be used. FIG. 1 shows a steel drum having a central opening of standard size in its top head, such as bunghole 22. The bung normally used to close such opening is unscrewed when the agitator is to be introduced for operation. The sleeve 18 carries at one end, as has been stated hereinbefore, a closure cap which serves as a part of the securing means to cooperate with the part on the drum. The closure cap has dimensions and a thread, which correspond to those of the bung that has been unscrewed and make it possible for the closure cap to be screwed into the flange 21.

Once the agitator has been lowered into position in the container, the closure cap 19 is screwed into the flange 21, which will hold the agitator in suspended condition and the section 25 just above the bottom head of the container. With the sleeve 18 in the fixed position shown in FIG. 1, it is possible to raise all the parts of the agitator, which are slidably connected with the sleeve 18. These parts are the shaft 15, the crank 16, and the stirrer bar 17, which all form single piece. The sleeve 18 is shorter than the shaft 15, which makes it possible to lift the referred to single piece until the free end of the continuation 23a abuts against the lower edge of the sleeve.

The sleeve 18 surrounds a portion of the shaft 15 and serves, as has also already been indicated, to steady and center the shaft and the whole agitator.

FIG. 1 shows a so-called top-entering agitator; yet, it will be appreciated that any embodiment of my agitator may also be used for side-entering. If desired, my agitator may, with the aid of supports, also be used in open containers, a purpose for which it is not primarily intended.

The stirrer bar of the agitator of FIG. 1 is shown to be throughout its length of identical cross-section. This cross-section is of V-shape. While neither a particular cross-section nor identity of cross-section throughout is a requirement of the present invention, the invention does require a channel-like shape for the stirrer bar. From the sectional view of FIG. 2 it is seen that the channel-shaped stirrer bar 17 has two legs L and L and that each of the legs is formed of a flat strip and is defined by two opposite sides. The two sides of legs L are designated 1 and O, and the two sides of leg L, I and 0''. One of the two arrows in FIG. 2 indicates the direction in which the channel opens and at the same time shows that the channel-opening direction is substantially perpendicular to the direction of rotation, indicated by the other arrow. With the rotational direction of the agitator, as indicated, it :will also be seen that during rotation the inner surface I of the leg L and the outer surface 0'' of the leg L" point in the direction of rotation. The surfaces I and 1" form the inner side, and the surfaces 0 and O" the outer side, of the stirrer bar. Thus, it appears that portions of the opposite sides which define the channel-forming bar point in the direction of rotation. These conditions are the same along the entire lengths of the sections 23, 24, and 25 and apply also when the rotation is oppositely directed.

Out of the three sections 23, 24, and 25, section 23 may be considered diagonal, and sections 24 and 25 vertical and horizontal, respectively. Due to the channel-like shape of the sections, each section comprises in effect two differently tilted blades, so that the whole stirrer bar 17 is altogether comprised of six blades, two diagonal, two vertical, and two horizontal ones.

The operation of the agitator of FIG. 1 is as follows:

Considering the top or diagonal section 23 first, it will be understood that it does not merely push material around in a circular path, when being rotated, as diagonal blades of known arm or paddle mixers do. Instead, one of the legs L and L" will at times carry material forwardly and upwardly, while the other leg will simul taneously carry material forwardly and downwardly. Depending on the rotational position of the legs, material will be given an upward push by the surface I ofleg L, and a downward push by the surface 0' of the leg L". Section 23 produces both an up and down thrust on the material. As for the intermediate or vertical section 24,

both legs push material around in circular paths, but here, too, are differently oriented thrusts. In the case of the bottom or horizontal section 25, one of the legs acts as scraper blade and raises material from the bottom, while the other leg produces a differently directed thrust and helps effectively agitate a sediment which has settled on the bottom of the drum. The results of my channelshaped stirrer bar are more nearly those of a propeller than of a paddle assembly.

In the agitator of FIGS. 4 to 6, there is a stirrer bar which is not shown and may be like the one shown in FIG. 1. A shaft a which is secured to the stirrer bar has a square cross-sectional shape, rather than a round shape as has the shaft 15 of FIG. 1, and does not terminate in a handle. There -is again a tubular sleeve 18a which slidably receives the shaft 15a and has a threaded end portion 26. An annular combination plug 27 is provided with an internal thread to receive the end portion 26. To prevent that the sleeve 18a together with the plug 27 be slid off the shaft 15a, an abutment pin 28 is provided. It passes through the shaft and comes to rest on a bottom 29 of the plug 27 when the plug is moved farthest away from the stirrer bar and is near the free end of the shaft 15a.

Upon introduction of the agitator of FIGS. 4 to 6 in a drum through a bunghole thereof, the plug 27 which has an external thread 30 is threaded into the annular flange 21, or into a bushing, provided in the top head of the drum. As in the case of FIG. 1, the agitator of FIGS. 4 to 6 becomes thus supported for operation.

The plug 27 is further provided with another internal thread 31 to receive in a somewhat bushinglike fashion either a closure cap 32 (FIG. 5) or a member 33 (FIGS. 4 and 6) serving a twofold purpose. The bunghole in a drum, through which the agitator of FIGS. 4 to 6 is to be introduced, may be stopped by the closure cap 32 before as well as after the introduction of the agitator. When the agitator is to be operated within the drum, the closure cap 32 is to be replaced by the member 33.

The latter consistsof a threaded closure portion 34, a hand hold 35, and an oppositely arranged socket portion 36. Member 33 is used as a handle by slipping the socket portion having an opening 36a over the free end portion of the shaft 15a and by turning the member 33 together with the agitator, using the hand hold 35. From FIG. 4 it appears that the member 33 is formed as a flat tool to serve as a closure and also in a somewhat similar manner like an off-set socket wrench. The flat design permits that the member 33 may be used as a closure not only during storage but also during transportation. The same square head 37 is provided on the closure cap 32 (FIG. 5 (and on the member 36 (FIGS. 4 and 6) for turning by a wrench.

Having reference to FIG. 7, the agitator shown uses a hand crank 38 which is similar to that shown in FIG. 1, but is not integrally formed with the shaft 1512. It is operatively connected with the shaft 15b by a pair of spur gears 39, 40 to increase the input speed. The crank 38, a box holding the gears 39, 40, a combination plug 27b, a sleeve 18b, the shaft 15b, and a stirrer bar not shown form the fixedly united piece. The sleeve 18b is not slidable. 41 and 42 are packing rings.

'It is believed that the construction of my agitator, as well as the many advantages thereof, will be fully understood from the foregoing detailed description. Some of the features and advantages of the agitator of the invention are reviewed hereinafter.

The stirrer bar has been shown to consist of three sections, but it will be understood that it is withinthe scope of this invention to vary the number of the sections. It is also possible to vary the angles formed by adjacent sections and to use curved sections besides and/ or instead of straight ones. With two sections, one section extends diagonally, while the other section at the bottom of a container is horizontal. In any event, the construction must allow the agitator to be introduced through a container opening.

Since according to the invention each section of a stirrer rod consists of two tilted blades this agitator takes a shorter time than a conventional three-blade mixer requires to produce the same degree of mixing with the same material in the same container.

Another advantage of the present agitator, apart from its relative great rigidity, is seen in the fact that it can be rotated with the same ease clockwise and counterclockwise and is equally effective with each of the rotational directions.

The agitator, as can be seen from FIG. 1, can easily be adjusted with respect to its axial position. The length of the portion of the agitator within the drum may be varied so that the bottom section 25 may be held any desired distance away from the drum bottom. The crank 16, the shaft 15, and the stirrer bar 17 may be raised until the upper edge of the bar 17 strikes against the lower edge of the sleeve 18.

All that is stated hereinbefore with respect to the operation of the agitator of FIG. 1 also applies to the operation of the two other forms of agitator, shown and described.

For manual operation, a handle is used as shown in FIG. 1, FIGS. 4 to 6, and FIG. 7, but the agitator may also be used in association with a motor of suitable horse power in which case there is no handle and the motor may be conjoined with a reduction drive for low speed work.

The shaft and stirrer bar may be made of stainless steel, Monel metal, brass, bronze, iron, special alloys, lead or rubber-coated, depending on the intended uses.

It is noted that while I have shown and described my invention in a few forms only, many changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A portable agitator adapted to be removably inserted into a container through an opening thereof, comprising a shaft having an axis, means for supporting said shaft within said opening for rotation about said axis, and stirring means, said stirring means being constituted by a bar of angular cross-section to provide two elongated angularly disposed legs over the whole length of said bar, said bar being secured to said shaft in end to end relation, each leg being defined by a pair of opposite faces, the two pairs of opposite faces intersecting each other, one of the faces of each of said pairs pointing, on rotation of said shaft and bar, in the general direction of rotation.

2. In the agitator according to claim 1, said bar being integrally formed by a first, a second, and a third section, said sections being joined in end to end relation, said first section extending away from said axis so as to form together with said shaft an obtuse angle, said third section extending substantially at right angles to said axis, said second section being intermediate said first and third sections and extending parallel to said axis, said third section extending toward and beyond a point of intersection of said third section and said axis.

3. In the agitator according to claim 1, said supporting means including plug means and a sleeve member, said plug means and said sleeve member being secured to each other and slidably receiving said shaft, said plug means being adapted to close a container opening.

4. In the agitator according to claim 1, said supporting means including annular plug means and a sleeve member, said annular plug means and said sleeve member being secured to each other and slidably receiving said shaft, said annular plug means being adapted to fit into a container opening and to receive means for closing said container opening.

5. In the agitator according to claim 4, said container opening-closing means being provided with a closure portion, a socket portion, and a hand hold, said shaft having a free end, said closure portion being adapted to engage said annular plug means and to close a-container opening, said socket portion being adapted to engage said free shaft end for operation of the agitator.

6. In the agitator according to claim 1, said supporting means including plug means adapted to close a container Opening, agitator-actuating means, motion-transmitting References Cited by the Examiner gear means interposed between said agitator-actuating UNITED STATES PATENTS means and said shaft and carried by said plug means, and a sleeve fixedly connected to said plug means and 2 :3 adapted to extend into the interior of said container and 5 2073925 3/1937 Farrington 259 107 to surround said shaft to help support said shaft and 2517149 8/1950 Walsh et Surfer 2,543,151 2/1951 Cerniak 259 10s X 7. In the agitator according to claim 1, said legs defin- 2 543,567 2/1951 Cemiak 259 108 ing a channel, said channel opening, on rotation of said 132,850 5/1964 Puchalski X shaft and bar, in a direction substantially perpendicular 10 to the direction of rotation. WILLIAM I. PRICE, Primary Examiner. 

1. A PORTABLE AGITATOR ADAPTED TO BE REMOVABLY INSERTED INTO A CONTAINER THROUGH AN OPENING THEREOF, COMPRISING A SHAFT HAVING AN AXIS, MEANS FOR SUPPORTING SAID SHAFT WITHIN SAID OPENING FOR ROTATION ABOUT SAID AXIS, AND STIRRING MEANS, SAID STIRRING MEANS BEING CONSTITUTED BY A BAR OF ANGULAR CROSS-SECTION TO PROVIDE TWO ELONGATED ANGULARLY DISPOSED LEGS OVER THE WHOLE LENGTH OF SAID BAR, SAID BAR BEING SECURED TO SAID SHAFT IN END TO END RELATION, 